Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) Australia's energy grid is under imminent threat of blackouts as soon as this summer, as the Government's energy plan drives the premature closure of baseload energy without any guarantee of like-for-like replacement;

(b) that the Australian Energy Market Operator has sounded its most dire warning yet, signalling the increased likelihood of significant energy shortfalls as renewable energy investment stalls;

(c) that the stark warning is a direct result of the Government's energy policies;

(d) that at least 80 per cent of baseload energy will shut down by 2035 under this Government's watch;

(e) that despite the Minister for Climate Change and Energy repeatedly claiming that he is leading an economic transformation 'bigger than the Industrial Revolution' his Government has not asked his department or Treasury to complete any modelling of the energy plan;

(f) that Australians are already paying some of the most expensive energy bills in the world and now they have been told their lights may not turn on when they need them;

(g) the Government's heavy-handed, big government policies continue to smother investments in gas which is vital to keeping the lights on and the prices down;

(h) that increased demand for gas coupled with decreased investment due to the Government's anti-gas policies will exacerbate the threat to reliability and the risk that the lights will go out;

(i) the situation will only get worse if the Government continues with its policy suite and ill-informed pathway to decarbonising the grid;

(j) the Government's policies are driving the premature closure of baseload power generation yet is failing to replace the capacity as it has promised it would; and

(k) the Government is setting up renewable energy for failure, not success, by demanding a renewables-only grid; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) immediately stop its ideological crusade against energy technologies it does not like despite many of these technologies having reliably kept the lights on for decades;

(b) adopt an 'all of the above' approach to energy, as the Opposition has done, to ensure a balanced mix of technologies that can power our grid into the future, including renewables but not only renewables;

(c) support any state government that seeks to avoid premature closure of coal fired power stations while like-for-like energy generating replacements are built; and

(d) reinstate a technology-agnostic capacity mechanism as an insurance method to provide operators with the incentives they need to ensure a reliable synchronous energy supply in the grid.

This motion deals with one of the most critical issues facing Australia today and into the future, our energy supply: our energy supply at present and our energy supply into the future. Before I was elected I thought of myself, and still do, as a recovering environmental lawyer. In that sense I want to mention the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle is a fundamental of environmental law. It states

If a product, an action or a policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, protective action should be supported before there is complete scientific proof of a risk.

I've always supported our country moving to net zero emissions. The coalition supports that policy. However, this motion is brought particularly on the basis of the recent statement from the Australian Energy Market Operator's report that led to dire warnings about an increased chance of blackouts this summer that this country, particularly in my home state of New South Wales, has not seen since the 1970s.

This demonstrates that the Labor government's energy policy, led by Minister Bowen, is going down the wrong path. Again, I would urge the minister and the government to exercise the precautionary principle. It now has the warnings from the AEMO about the potential damage of getting off the boat before we're at the wharf. Minister Bowen has repeatedly claimed that he is leading an economic transformation bigger than the industrial revolution. That may well be the case. When leading a transformation such as this, however, it has to be done in a measured way. And, as I said, there is an old saying relevant to this debate, relevant to the rollout of such a transformation: do not get off the boat until we're at the wharf. The boat I'm talking about is the boat that has for centuries delivered us affordable and reliable energy. The government's policies on this at present, though, are driving the premature closure of baseload power generation and failing to replace the capacity as it promised it would.

In that vein, then, the government's zealotry towards renewables and in looking only at renewables for our future energy supply is setting the whole renewables energy industry up for failure. A renewables-only grid has not worked in any country in the world. Minister Bowen is yet to demonstrate how it is going to work here. In fact, he now has evidence from the AEMO that at present—its current rollout—it is not going to be successful here either. We are in the process whereby around 80 per cent of our existing baseload energy will shut down by 2035 under this government.

Australians are paying some of the highest energy bills in the world. Australian families say this. Australian businesses say this. Wherever you go in the country, when we all move through our electorates, everybody is concerned about the cost of their energy. But policies such as the government's rollout and its refusal to look at anything other than renewables has caused this energy crisis. Most Australians are now paying $1,000 a year more for their energy than they were paying in May 2022; many in my electorate would be happy if they were paying only $1,000 a year more. Therefore, I call on this government to look at a hybrid model of technologies for our future. We cannot get off gas, which has served this country very well, until we have demonstrated sufficient baseload power to power our industries and to power our homes into the future. The government needs to stop now, look at the precautionary principle and roll out its transformation in a far more measured way.

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